The Tristan Thompson saga has been resolved, as the power forward agreed to a compromise deal with the Cavaliers worth $82 million over five years. Cleveland is finally set as the last major free agent of 2015 is in place. With that, it's time to review what we learned from this four-month exercise.
5 things we learned from the Tristan Thompson saga
The four-month negotiation has ended. With its conclusion, we have some lessons on agent hardball, the Cavaliers’ commitment and the NBA’s pecking order.
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1. Dan Gilbert is sparing no expense in attempting to end Cleveland’s curse.
As of now, it looks like the Cavaliers' total payroll including luxury tax will reach $170 million, with almost $60 million in tax. That would be the second-highest payroll in league history, trailing only the epic 2013-14 Brooklyn Nets. Thompson's deal itself boosted Cleveland's luxury tax bill by about $40 million, per Bobby Marks. Dan Gilbert is dropping a nearly unprecedented amount of dough on this team.
As such, local critiques of Gilbert as a paymaster are dead and buried. He is doing everything he can to bring a championship to Cleveland. This isn’t to say he’s done everything right all along, but right now? His effort to get this done is unimpeachable.
2. Rich Paul and Mark Termini have no reason to stop playing hardball.
Last summer, Klutch Sports client Eric Bledsoe held out, hoping for a max deal from the Suns. He didn't get it. Thompson held out this year, hoping for a max deal. He didn't get it. So Rich Paul, Mark Termini and Klutch Sports are failures, right?
WRONG. Holding out didn’t cost Bledsoe or Thompson a dime, and in fact made them more money. While Cleveland’s previous best offer to Thompson is reported commonly at $80 million, some reports suggest only $73 million was guaranteed. Thompson’s deal is for $82 million fully guaranteed. Nine million dollars is not nothing. Likewise, Bledsoe’s eventual contract (signed before training camp) exceeded the Suns’ previous best offer. You don’t get bonus points for cutting a deal in July, and while the Klutch duo make everyone sweat, it has worked out for their clients.
Given that both Bledsoe and Thompson have been high profile situations, Klutch could pick up some new clients on the strength of their work. If not, they have two interesting youngsters in the pipeline that could make for some tough negotiations in the future: Ben McLemore and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope.
3. While the luxury tax hurts, Thompson’s actual salary will be in line with norms by next season.
Some of the common confusion over the cost of Thompson's contract is due to the conflation between his actual salary (under $15 million for 2015-16, with an average of $16.4 million over the life of the deal) and the tax ramifications. Because of the tax, signing Thompson cost the Cavaliers more than $50 million this year. But of course that has no bearing on the future value of Thompson's contract: it's just the current reality caused by having three legit max players and some pricey role players like Timofey Mozgov, J.R. Smith and Iman Shumpert.
While $15 million is a steep salary for a third big man, one who will play 25 minutes per game or so, the salary cap explosion coming in 2016 will render this deal fairly normal. Once you consider that Thompson is young and the Cavaliers are contending for a title, the deal’s not even bad by current considerations. The cap has slowly grown in recent years. For many observers, $15 million still looks like an incredible sum to pay a player below the star level. It’s becoming less so, and a year from now, so many lesser players are going to get more than what Thompson won.
This deal is unlikely to find its way onto “worst contract” lists in the next couple of years. And if it does ...
4. There’s always amnesty.
A new labor deal will be negotiated in 2017, which is about midway through Thompson’s deal. If for whatever reason it ends up being a real albatross -- which is unlikely -- there’s a good chance there will be an amnesty clause to erase it. This colors every mammoth deal signed this year and next, by the way. While using the amnesty clause that crops up every new labor deal isn’t totally free (you still must pay the player’s salary, it just comes off the cap sheet and tax bill), it’s still a nice ace in the pocket. Again, I wouldn’t anticipate Thompson ever underperforming this deal enough to be an amnesty candidate. But it’ll be there, just in case.
5. The Cavaliers are title favorites now, if they weren’t already.
Thompson is a good player who fits a key need for the Cavaliers: he's an agile pick-and-roll defender, which is ever more important in this pick-and-roll league. He does other things well -- especially offensive rebounding -- but the one thing that Cleveland desperately needs to meet their goals given the poor defensive ability of Kyrie Irving and Kevin Love is pick-and-roll defense. Thompson does it really well.
His other skills (rebounding, garbage-man scoring, foot speed) make him an excellent insurance policy should Love or Mozgov suffer injuries. And LeBron’s otherworldly ability makes a James-Thompson frontcourt a nice option in certain matchups. The redundancy up front should also allow David Blatt to keep the roster fresh for the long playoff march.
Thompson, in this sense, is much more than a nine-points, nine-rebounds power forward. He completes the puzzle. Without him, Cleveland would be East favorites and underdogs against whoever the West trots out in the finals. With Thompson, the Cavaliers should be favored to win the title. The margin is slim at the top, and Thompson moves the needle just enough to nudge Cleveland above anyone in the West.
